Just in case you’re still interested in visual thinking, here’s another curriculum map.

First, an update on the course I was taking on Graphic Facilitation. For me, it was a bust. It was a course taught by a seasoned professional who didn’t have the heart of an educator.

Educators are generous with their knowledge and with their audience. This guy wasn’t. Most learner requests or suggestions were answered with a quick “No, we’re not doing that.” Often the response was that we were the test group so we were half price and shouldn’t feel as if we would get the full package. Or that they were really busy right now with their business and family and couldn’t really do more. Sorry. A variety of “No” answers.

I quit halfway through. I have to admit that I probably knew from the first paid course I took from this same group that this wasn’t going to be a great experience. However, I hoped I was wrong ’cause this was a more expensive offer. It wasn’t. Yeah, I fell twice. And now, NEVER AGAIN.

I am now taking a different paid online course, called Butts in Seats by Daphne Bosquet. It’s about how to market a workshop. . . to the right audience.

Here’s the lesson. It’s about buying decision making and it’s a bit of a “Duh.”

If you are going to spend a significant amount of money on an online learning product, do your research. If there is a free offering, check it out. If the free one doesn’t share BIG value with you, don’t sign up for the paid one. This is also true for white papers and research. If they don’t offer big value as a trial, they’re not going to offer big value. Period.

I tried Daphne out by taking her free one hour webinar where she shares 5 marketing tips for filling a workshop. It was BRILLIANT!!! There were at least three tips that I walked away with that had BIG value. Two I might have come up with on my own, but the one was a mind blower. And it was practical. 1. Do this, 2.go here to do it 3. here’s what it will cost 4. here’s what you do once you have it.

The result of her generosity is that I have since signed up and paid for her Butts in Seats workshop and I’ve attended the first session. Again, she delivers value beyond the cost, from the first encounter.

My buying lesson is, if it’s not great from the start, it’s likely not going to get better. If there isn’t a free sample offered that blows you away, the chance that it will blow you away once you pay for it is slim. My selling lesson is, if you sell an online course (or any kind of course) based on your expertise, you have opened a window into the value of a relationship with you. Deliver big value or risk your reputation.

Okay, enough. That map. I put these up here so that you can steal any metaphor images you like and add them to your collection.

We played tourist while some very dear friends were here. It’s always a great opportunity to explore the parts of San Antonio that we don’t regularly take time to see. This is from an amazing concrete grotto along the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk. It’s only a teaser.

We have a third clown painting so you know what that means? We are now fair game for collecting clown paintings. And if you need your own or some equally creepy, wonderful work, I recommend the show at the Laura Croft Gallery in Waco (no relation to the tomb raider). It features works by the Amazing Hancock Brothers. Here’s our new painting, which goes in the Fun House/Lounge once it’s built. The rest are very worthy as well. The ones on the blown out mattress covers are creepy deluxe.

I just read a wonderful book titled Picture This: How pictures work written by Molly Bang. In it Bang, an award winning children’s book artist, explores color, shape, size and proximity to find the emotions hidden within the picture frame. She invites you into the experiment while she moves and changes simple solid color cutouts. Together you discover the following principles on how pictures work:

Smooth flat horizontal shapes give us a sense of stability and calm.

Vertical shapes are exciting and active.

Diagonal shapes imply motion or tension.

The upper half of a picture is a place of freedom, happiness and triumph

The center of the page is the center of attention

White backgrounds feel safer than dark backgrounds

Pointy shapes are scary; rounded shapes are comforting. [And I thought I came up with this myself when I finally drew the right wolf for my 3 Little Pigs sketchnote.]

The larger an object the stronger it feels

We associate shapes with the same color more strongly than shapes with the same shape

Contrast enables us to see

Just ’cause I’ve written the points down here doesn’t mean you’ve gotten it all. There are many nuances that she covers that aren’t included in the points above. It’s a brilliant book that covers a complex subject deeply. . . in 96 pages. And that’s the beauty of a children’s book illustrator. She can tell a complicated story simply, preserving all the story’ complexity.

November 18th, I’m teaching a woven wire chain making class at Eye of the Dog Art Center. There are two styles that you can see in the photo above. One is knitted on a spool, like you did if you were a Brownie as a girl; the other is called Viking knit. Both are very soft and flexible, which still seems odd to me. You can sign up and find out more about other classes by clicking on this link.

And if a single woven chain isn’t sexy enough for you, you can “sew” them together to create bands, like this one:

Or you can sew a string of the chains together and flatten them to make earrings, like these:

Or, do a short chain and add a handmade bead at the end for a pair of dangle earrings. Or add small beads up and down the length of chain. Or weave three strands together and stitch beads into the holes. Or make a wire bolo.

We’ll talk about all of that. Plus, we’ll drink wine while we work.

We’ll be working in copper wire, but silver or gold filled wire makes lovely pieces too.

You’ll get a knitting spool, draw plate and crochet hook so that you can continue to build your collection after this mini-workshop.

My mother, Harriet Hayward, painted for over 70 years. She painted and then gave her paintings away. Often, before we had seen them.

I knew her well as a mother. She was fierce!

When she died late last year, we found a wealth of additional work, in photos and on paper. It was like discovering more of her. I went through journals and notes, drawers of paper drawings, lots of photos, and assembled a “catalog” of her life as an artist. You can see it at www.viovio.com. Search under Harriet Hayward.

We’ve recently discovered a place that will print images on canvas, as large as 3 x 4, which means that we can have more of her or copies of her work, that is. You need one?